PAT TOOMEY SCORES BIG WIN FOR HIS WALL STREET FRIENDS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE REST OF US

Yesterday, Pat Toomey and his Wall Street friends scored a big win by stripping down the Volcker Rule, a part of Dodd-Frank that protected American taxpayers from the risky financial maneuvers of big financial institutions that drove us into the 2008 recession.

“One again, Pat Toomey is siding with Wall Street to make billionaires more money at the expense of the American taxpayer,” said Beth Melena, senior communications advisor for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “Former big banker Pat Toomey never stopped working for Wall Street when he became a senator. In fact, he’s still collecting a paycheck from Wall Street – he’s received millions of dollars from the banking and financial industries. Greedy Pat Toomey refuses to stand up for Pennsylvania’s taxpayers.”

BACKGROUND

“U.S. banking regulators on Tuesday approved changes easing a rule introduced after the 2007-2009 financial crisis that bans banks from trading on their own account, giving Wall Street one of its biggest wins under the Trump administration.” [Reuters, 8/20/19]

“And Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey judged that ‘we’ve gone down the wrong road’ with Dodd-Frank. The better course, he said, is a less intrusive plan that would ‘let the people in the marketplace make the decisions they will make.’” [The Washington Post, 5/22/12]

“The Volcker Rule is a federal regulation that generally prohibits banks from conducting certain investment activities with their own accounts and limits their dealings with hedge funds and private equity funds, also called covered funds. The Volcker Rule aims to protect bank customers by preventing banks from making certain types of speculative investments that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis….Named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the Volcker Rule refers to section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which sets forth rules for implementing section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956.” [Investopedia, 6/20.2019]